


Zero Hour

by pastel_didactic



Series: Shuake Week 2019 [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi gets the call to plan Akira's murder while he's in leblanc, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, I've never written one of these before, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, rest in peace to pastel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-21 04:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21068498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastel_didactic/pseuds/pastel_didactic
Summary: This wasn’t supposed to happen to him. This was stuff that happened in movies, and certainly to other people. Not him.He didn’t deserve it.





	Zero Hour

**Author's Note:**

> Ho-kay! So like. I have never written a soulmate AU before this. I've read a metric shitton, but I've never actually sat down and wrote one myself. 
> 
> That being said, this is nowhere near my best work. But I did have fun writing it! So there's that! :D

You hear about it on the news all the time. The trope dominates movies, literature, mass media all over the world. Someone’s counter stops ticking somewhere in an airport terminal and the main character looks all over for whomever it could have possibly been in a throng of people. 

It was stupid. 

Which was why Akechi always kept his gloves on, and never let them slide up his wrist. Soulmates were a joke, he figured. A genetic evolution that humanity developed, though he could not say it was something likely formed out of necessity. To Akechi, it felt extraneous. A needless mutation. They didn’t  _ need _ to have soulmates. People lived, got married, and died without ever meeting their soulmates. Akechi thought it was pointless to live a good portion of your life watching a timer. You spend so much of your life looking for one person, and you may not even  _ like _ them. Akechi had heard several stories over the course of his life so far about people finding their soulmate and  _ hating them _ . 

Akechi found himself moping about this one one particular afternoon, sipping at a warm coffee at his favorite cafe. Leblanc was empty today- not a soul to be seen yet, aside from himself. The only other person here was Akira, who was washing dishes to pass the time. 

Akechi wasn’t an idiot. 

He knew Akira was involved with the Phantom Thieves. It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to consider such a thing. He knew it was a matter of time before he had to get involved, for good or ill. Most likely ill. They were proving to be a nuisance to his plan and eventually he was going to have to do something about it. Though he… did not find himself in a position to do such a thing at present. Akechi had the dubious misfortune of finding Kurusu Akira to be attractive, and the presence of his company soothing. It was unfair, and painfully so, as he realized this detail around the same time he realized Akira is a Phantom Thief.

Right around the time the tiny timer on the inside of his left wrist stopped.

Goro knew it was for Akira. He didn’t have to guess or assume anything about it. He knew it was for him; he could tell in the way he hopelessly fell into a pattern around the raven. How their banter became playful and curious, how he’d stay without a fight for a chess game. Once, Akira propped his head up on his fist, balancing his elbow on the counter, and gave him a look Akechi could only describe as sinful. Akechi had felt his heartbeat speed up in his chest and run a marathon of its own, right there in his rib cage. How was this real? 

This wasn’t supposed to happen to him. This was stuff that happened in movies, and certainly to other people. Not him. 

He didn’t deserve it. 

Akira didn’t have a timer. Not one that Goro could see, anyway. He’d heard of that too- some people just not being born with one. The idea had crossed his mind that they were soulmates, and it was just that Akira didn’t have a timer, but he dismissed the thought just as quickly. 

Nonsense.

“A penny for your thoughts, detective,” Akira asked, stirring a small saucepan next to the giant pot of curry, “You’re thinking so loudly I can hear it from here.” Goro winced, his mind flashing with all the stories he’d heard of soulmates being able to share emotions. Surely that was just a saying? Goro bit his bottom lip, looking down into his lukewarm coffee. He’d let it sit for too long, engrossed in his own thoughts. 

“Do you believe in soulmates, Kurusu-kun?” 

“Yes I do.” 

“Such a quick answer. Do you have one?” Goro had no idea why his stomach churned at the idea of Akira’s soulmate being anyone other than himself. “I do,” Akira said, and Goro’s heart sank, “But I haven’t told him.” 

“Oh, I see. Why haven’t you, if you know who it is?”   
  
“Why the question?” Akira was being defensive. He probably didn’t trust Goro to know this information, and honestly that was fair. Goro wouldn’t trust himself, either. “I’m only curious. You don’t have to answer, if you don’t want to.” 

The cafe fell silent, and Goro sipped at his now bitter, tepid coffee just to give himself something to do with his hands. Akira watched him carefully, opening a packet of… was that instant coffee?... and dumping the contents into the mixture on the stove. When enough silence had passed that Goro believed their conversation to be dropped, Akira spoke, “I haven’t told him… because I’m not sure he’d want to hear it from me.”   
  
“That’s… rather sad, Kurusu-kun. How can you know what he wants, if you won’t ask him about it?” 

“Call it a gut feeling. He’s too… He’s out of my league.” Now  _ that _ was something he’d  _ never _ expect to hear out of Akira. 

“You’ve  _ got to be kidding me _ ,” the words spurt out of Goro’s mouth before he had a chance to stop them, “Someone is out of your league? Kurusu-kun, don’t you  _ dare _ start that  _ bullshit _ with me.” 

The whole cafe seemed to stop making noise. The sounds of the outside world beyond the door faded into the distance. The simmering sound of whatever it was Kurusu was cooking vanished. The sound from the TV muted. It was just he and Akira, staring at one another, Goro scowling and Akira staring silently at him with raised eyebrows. 

Well. In for a penny. 

“Well? What’s the real reason?” 

“I,” Akira started, before stopping himself. He scowled, lowered the heat on whatever he was cooking, and came around the stove to stand in front of him. “I haven’t told him, no. But I want to.”    


  
“So why don’t you?”    


  
“He and I don’t see eye to eye. If I tell him he’s my soulmate, he’ll cut me out of his life forever.”    
  


“And you think someone that volatile is a healthy option for you?” Akira huffed out a sigh, clearly frustrated. Goro was missing something here. “You don’t understand,” Akira shook his head, and Goro scoffed. Akira put a hand up to stop Goro’s reply and continued, “We’re friends, I think. I can’t ever really tell with him, but I’d like to think so. But I only ever see him in pieces. I’ve never seen his entire personality. We clash on certain things, and I feel like if I tell him he’s my soulmate, he’ll want to run.”

Goro, ever the detective that his, and as familiar with Akira’s inner circle as he was, began to piece things together. 

But that was impossible. Wasn’t it? 

“You deserve so much better than that,” Goro found himself saying, quiet and far too heavy to be just a friend supporting another, “You’re the one out of his league.” 

His eyes dropped to the table, unable to meet Akira’s anymore. What was happening? Anxiety bubbled up in his chest like a hyperactive ball of electricity. Was this… some kind of confession? What would he even do with this information? It wasn’t like Goro could even follow through with the whole soulmate thing. 

His ledger was far too red for that. 

Akira reached forward, brushing Goro’s left wrist with his fingers. Goro’s head shot up to look at him, and he found a small, soft, and yet unnaturally brittle smile on Akira’s face. “I think it’s my decision, isn’t it? Whether or not I think he’s good enough for me?”

The moment was so soft, so fragile. So, naturally, when the sound of his phone cut through the silence, Goro flinched and slid away from Akira to look down at his phone. 

Shido Masayoshi’s name blinked up at him on the screen. Of course. Akechi got out of his seat, and the look he gave Akira was wistful at best. He looked down at the phone in his hand, and back up to Akira, “... I wish I could ignore this call, but I can’t.” 

Akira nodded, a slow and solemn bob of his head that told Akechi more than he really needed to know about exactly how much Akira understood. “Go on. Don’t leave them waiting.” Akechi left the cafe, leaving his cold coffee and briefcase behind, marking his spot. Akira sighed, thumbing the space just above his right hip, where he knew his counter read zero beneath his clothes. 

Akira went back to the stove, he tasted the curry he’d made on the side. Deeming it extremely mild, and good enough, he and fished out a tupperware container from the cabinet, filling it with curry. Closing the lid, he put it, a plastic spoon, and some napkins into a brown paper bag, and left it in front of Akechi’s seat. 

He would do all that he could for Goro, even if in the end, his efforts meant nothing. 

Akira took the mug back over to the sink to pour the coffee down the drain and wash it out, when Goro came back into the cafe. 

He did not look good. Goro looked up at Akira and all the color simultaneously drained from his face. That wasn’t ideal.    
  
Goro shifted his weight from one leg to the other like he simply could  _ not _ get away fast enough, and he fussed with the glove on his left hand. “Are you okay..?” Akira’s question was as hesitant as it was worried.

“Am I…? Yes, yes, of course, no I’m fine. I just. I have to go.” He looked at Akira like he’d seen a ghost, and Akira did not like how that made him feel. Goro launched into action and gathered his things with shaking hands. This was something bad, Akira could tell. Rounding the counter with a speed he wasn’t sure he actually possessed, Akira stopped him with a hand on his wrist. 

“Wait,” Akira’s voice raised just a little bit, and sure enough the older boy did stop. “Something’s wrong. What happened?” Akechi didn’t answer him. He was trying to slip that pretty boy, tv aesthetic over his face and it wasn’t working. Instead it fit over his face in pieces, and the cracks showed something awful beneath. This was it. This was the moment, if there ever was one, that Akira had even a slim chance of getting through to Akechi Goro. 

“... Goro.” 

The brunet shuddered. 

“Goro, I need you to tell me what’s wrong. I don’t like seeing you like this. I want to help,” he pulled Goro in closer, prying the handle of his briefcase from shaking fingers, “... Please.” 

Goro looked up at him, and a bitter smile crackled crossed his face. “You always want to fucking help, Akira. That’s all you do- help people. You don’t know how to help yourself. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Worry about yourself.” 

Akira felt like he was getting a glimpse of the real Goro, an angry boy no doubt wrapped up in something awful. Seizing his moment, Akira pulled on a few of the threads that tied him to Joker, and let his best trickster’s smile cut across his face. “Oh, but I’m a selfish man, detective. Helping you  _ is _ helping me. I hate when you put on that facade in front of me. I thought we were beyond that point by now,” He ran his thumb under the lip of Goro’s left hand glove where he had deduced Goro’s timer to be, and sure enough Goro flinched. Perhaps not the best move, because the detective became slightly more guarded. 

“You can’t possibly be,” the whisper was so quiet Akira felt like it wasn’t for his ears. 

“What if I am,” came his equally quiet reply. 

There were a few tense moments of silence where Akira prayed. He’d laid his cards out on the table, and waited to see if Goro would bluff. Seconds ticked by into minutes, and eventually, a watery chuckle came from the slightly taller boy. 

“I’m afraid it might be too late for us.”

“I don’t believe that.” The pressure in the room got heavier as Akira drew Goro closer into his space. They were now only mere inches apart. Akira had to weigh his next words very carefully. If he was too flippant, or too open, Akechi would close up like a clam, and he’d never get him to open up again. The words had to be enough, they had to be strong, and they had to be the truth. Something Goro would respond to, something painfully honest. “Why don’t you ever let go of that facade, when what’s under that is my soulmate? I’d love to see him for real, instead of the pieces I can get when I tease you enough.” 

“You wouldn’t like him.” 

“I beg to differ.”

“Why are you like this?” 

“I think you’re worth it.” That was it, the words that made Akechi stop in his tracks and look at Akira seriously. His merlot eyes were hazy with unshed tears, and the idea that whatever happened on the phone is what put them there flitted across Akira’s mind. Nothing in the cafe dared move or make a sound, as if the world stopped turning around them. There were a lot of instances like this today, and honestly Akira would appreciate it if they would stop. He just wanted to help Goro, to be there for him, and to love him as much as he could. Almost in reply, Goro wilted, dropping his head onto Akira’s shoulder. A measure of success! His arms wound around Goro, sealing him in place. Goro sniffed, clearly holding back tears, and he whispered probably the most honest sentiment he’d ever heard from the brunet, though the words lacked the venom to justify them. 

“Fuck you.” 

Akira laughed, full and hearty, and buried a hand in Goro’s soft hair. What happened, happened. They will deal with it later. For now, all that mattered to Akira was soothing Goro. They’d have to talk. A long and emotionally draining talk, to be sure. But Akira was up to it as soon as Goro was, and they’d come up with something. They’ll work it out, and they’ll do it together.

Everything was going to be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually rEALLY wanted to make this longer. I might actually come back to this! 
> 
> Until next time! <3


End file.
